DISTRIBUTION
October 2017
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logies co-exist
breaking news
experience, thus creating low viewer
engagement and subscriber churn.
“The reliability and ubiquity
of satellite contribution services,
combined with innovations and
services, will play a critical role in
helping content delivery networks
navigate this growth in online video
traffic while supporting live TV
news reporting,” he adds.
Intelsat recently partnered
Dejero to develop CellSat, a solu-
tion that combines cellular and
satellite connectivity. Using Dejero’s
network blending technology to
combine cellular connectivity from
multiple mobile network carri-
ers with Ku-band IP connectivity
provided by Intelsat, the CellSat
solution provides users the required
bandwidth to go live from any
location.
“Some broadcasters rely on cel-
lular networks to transmit digital
video, because of its ease-of-use and
minimal equipment requirements,”
says Cerbone. “The challenge is that
as broadcasters compete for avail-
able bandwidth from a very specific
location, where wireless networks
are often not able to handle the
surges in video traffic around
events, the quality and timeliness
of the live reporting is put at risk.”
For Dejero, the introduction of
the CellSat solution is aimed to “ad-
dress the dilemma that broadcasters
face about which video transport
assets to deploy to a news story or
live event”, claims Bogdan Frusina,
founder of Dejero.
The CellSat solution is designed
to communicate with the satellite
terminal auto-acquire system to
simplify the satellite connection
process. This, according to the
companies, eliminates the need to
schedule satellite time, thus saving
news crews time and remove the
constraint of broadcasting within
a certain time window. In addi-
tion to managing the bandwidth
of individual cellular connections,
CellSat software is able to dynami-
cally allocate satellite bandwidth for
optimal performance.
“The Dejero proposition for
CellSat is that content is streamed
live from the location across all
available IP network connections.
That might be Wi-Fi or Ethernet, if
available, or multiple cellular links
and now, using CellSat, with IP
satellite connections,” says Frusina.
“What Dejero does is packetise the
video and audio streams and send
it over to an IP transport path
that is available, analysing the
characteristics of all the available
connections, and blending the
networks to provide the optimal
path for delivering IP packets to
the playout destination.”
While satellite newsgathering
(SNG) trucks remain a critical
component for large news events
and mission-critical shots, Frusina
suggests that the role of SNG truck
is changing due to the rise of cellu
lar technology.
He elaborates: “At one time,
satellite dominated because it was
the only way for broadcasters to
confidently achieve live broad-
casts from remote locations. SNG
became the video transport route
of choice for broadcasters looking
to get live reports from breaking
news and large-scale planned
events to the studio, because it
gave a large degree of freedom.
“In place of traditional broad-
cast transmission equipment such
as satellite or microwave, broad-
casters now regularly use cellular
technology to send video signals
over the same wireless networks
that are used for voice and data
communications. Besides ease
of operation, relying on cellular
networks also enables local TV
stations to cover news events that
they might have otherwise not
been able to cover.”
One constraint in relying on
conventional SNG alone, accord-
ing to Frusina, is the fact that it
depends on video circuits that
need to be booked in advance, and
may be in short supply during a
major news story, while incurring
a significant cost. On the other
hand, cellular network congestion
and location also poses another
challenge when it comes to band-
width availability for news crews
relying on cellular connectivity
to transport video from the field.
He concludes: “The ability to
use blended networks has given
broadcast journalists the ability
to be on-site and on-air quickly,
allowing them to deliver reports
as fast as live streaming platforms.
With CellSat, those journalists can
provide reports, which will be live
streamed as well as stored for later
bulletins.
“Moreover, new platforms
such as Facebook Live are rapidly
soaking up available cellular band-
width; thus, professionals using
CellSat can continue to stream
live while individual social media
users occupy areas with limited
cellular bandwidth.”
For LiveU, the company has
similarly developed an integrated
satellite and cellular solution,
which is designed to add Ka or Ku
satellite bands to LiveU’s bonded
cellular units while optimising the
use of the different connection
points based on network condi-
tions.
Baruch Altman, assistant vice-
president, CTO office, LiveU, says:
“Hybrid IP solutions empower
broadcasters to upgrade their SNG
trucks from SD to HD, or from HD
to 4K/Ultra HD (UHD), without
the need for additional satellite
spectrum. In addition to ensuring
better utilisation of existing Capex
and Opex SNG resources, LiveU’s
hybrid technology allows users to
use cellular at high priority, and
automatically adds bandwidth
from the satellite seg